“Assignment: China,” a documentary chronicling American journalists’ coverage of the People’s Republic of China, will be screened at HKU on the 25th of November.

Former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy, the creator of the series, will introduce the screening, which documents the journalists who “watched” China in the 1950s, ’60s, and early ’70s.

After Mao Zedong’s communists took power in China in 1949, American journalists were barred from the country, and that situation continued until Richard Nixon’s historic visit in 1972. During this period, as China experienced revolution, famine and upheaval, an entire generation of journalists – operating primarily from Hong Kong – looked for clues in official propaganda, monitored the heavily censored broadcasts from Canton TV, interviewed refugees and defectors, swapped notes with diplomats, and produced a surprisingly accurate picture of China in turmoil.

About the Speaker 講者簡介: Mike Chinoy is a Senior Fellow at the U.S.-China Institute of the University of Southern California and the creator of the Assignment: China documentary film series on the history of American correspondents in China. He spent 24 years as a foreign correspondent for CNN, including stints as a roving reporter based in London, eight years as the network’s first Bureau Chief in Beijing, Bureau Chief in Hong Kong, and, from 2001-2006, Senior Asia Correspondent, responsible for coverage throughout the Asia-Pacific Region. He has reported on many of the most important events in Asia in the past 40 years, including the death of Mao Zedong, the Tiananmen Square crisis, the rise of China, the Hong Kong handover, and developments in North Korea.

China Watching is a documentary screening and discussion by Mike Chinoy, the producer of Assignment: China and former CNN Senior Asia Correspondent and Beijing Bureau Chief. The screening is 25 November 2014, from 6:30 to 8:30pm.